Thursday Murder Club
Discussion
I often buy books that are in the best-seller list. I infrequently agree that they are the book of the year, but it means normally I don’t buy a dud, Dan Brown notwithstanding. I avoided Osman’s Thursday Murder Club. I had the belief that he’d be like he is on Pointless, trying to impress everyone with his intelligence.
I was loaned the hardback version by a family member with the threat that they’d ask questions about it when I returned it.
To an extent, my prejudice was correct. It does seem as if he’s trying to show that he’s good at all aspects of novel writing, especially character building, and the ‘old people shouldn’t be ignored’ meme was a bit overdone. Otherwise, I thought it was very good.
I thoroughly enjoyed the who-dun-it aspect, along with getting to like the characters, even wishing I’d met them. Oddly enough, I felt a couple of them were sketches of members of my family. I loved the thought-processes of the characters. It wasn’t unputdownable, but I read it in short time.
It’s a bit Aggy Christie, complete with middle class actors populating and dominating the pages, but with the addition of character build-ups, something which I actually said I was looking for back in the day of belonging to a book group.
I’ve got the Kindle version of the sequel, so that says something.
Recommended.
I was loaned the hardback version by a family member with the threat that they’d ask questions about it when I returned it.
To an extent, my prejudice was correct. It does seem as if he’s trying to show that he’s good at all aspects of novel writing, especially character building, and the ‘old people shouldn’t be ignored’ meme was a bit overdone. Otherwise, I thought it was very good.
I thoroughly enjoyed the who-dun-it aspect, along with getting to like the characters, even wishing I’d met them. Oddly enough, I felt a couple of them were sketches of members of my family. I loved the thought-processes of the characters. It wasn’t unputdownable, but I read it in short time.
It’s a bit Aggy Christie, complete with middle class actors populating and dominating the pages, but with the addition of character build-ups, something which I actually said I was looking for back in the day of belonging to a book group.
I’ve got the Kindle version of the sequel, so that says something.
Recommended.
I came at this slightly backwards. Looking for something to read on a long journey recently, I picked up his second book 'The Man Who Died Twice', which I thoroughly enjoyed.
So I thought I'd give this one a go, and enjoyed it, but felt it wasn't as good. The plot, in particular. I get that you need red herrings, but some of them were left unresolved.
For example (and this is probably a spoiler, but if you've not read it, maybe stop here)
Jason the boxer was firmly in the frame as his car took 30 mins to pass two speed cameras set either side of the victim's house 1/2 mile apart, at the exact time of the murder. We seemed to just gloss over what he had actually been doing.
Also, why did the eventual murderer take so long about it? It was 30 years or something from the motive being created to the murder itself?
So I thought I'd give this one a go, and enjoyed it, but felt it wasn't as good. The plot, in particular. I get that you need red herrings, but some of them were left unresolved.
For example (and this is probably a spoiler, but if you've not read it, maybe stop here)
Jason the boxer was firmly in the frame as his car took 30 mins to pass two speed cameras set either side of the victim's house 1/2 mile apart, at the exact time of the murder. We seemed to just gloss over what he had actually been doing.
Also, why did the eventual murderer take so long about it? It was 30 years or something from the motive being created to the murder itself?
Read this on holiday and really disappointed by it. For over a year I'd nearly bought it as I was sure I'd enjoy it based on blurb and reviews.
- loads of characters who didn't add much and got confusing
- plot was too slow. So many chapters of nothing
- round the whole "quirkyness" overplayed and repeatedly played out was tiring
Reading the reviews more deeply and others had similar feelings. In fact Amazon's latest reviews are mostly quite negative.
- loads of characters who didn't add much and got confusing
- plot was too slow. So many chapters of nothing
- round the whole "quirkyness" overplayed and repeatedly played out was tiring
Reading the reviews more deeply and others had similar feelings. In fact Amazon's latest reviews are mostly quite negative.
After reading these posts I'm not expecting much of a reply, but I'll ask anyway:
I quite enjoyed the first book (agree it was a slow starter)
I have the third book, "The bullet that missed". I just read a page or two, it seems like I've missed something.
Do I "need" to get the second before I continue with number three? I feel like I'm missing a bit of character development.
Thanks in advance.
I quite enjoyed the first book (agree it was a slow starter)
I have the third book, "The bullet that missed". I just read a page or two, it seems like I've missed something.
Do I "need" to get the second before I continue with number three? I feel like I'm missing a bit of character development.
Thanks in advance.
ARFBY said:
After reading these posts I'm not expecting much of a reply, but I'll ask anyway:
I quite enjoyed the first book (agree it was a slow starter)
I have the third book, "The bullet that missed". I just read a page or two, it seems like I've missed something.
Do I "need" to get the second before I continue with number three? I feel like I'm missing a bit of character development.
Thanks in advance.
There's character and backstory development throughout all three books. I quite enjoyed the first book (agree it was a slow starter)
I have the third book, "The bullet that missed". I just read a page or two, it seems like I've missed something.
Do I "need" to get the second before I continue with number three? I feel like I'm missing a bit of character development.
Thanks in advance.
To quote myself from the 'what are you reading' thread a few months back - "I've just finished 'The bullet that missed', it was a birthday gift & I won't be rushing to read any of the others tbh.
400 odd pages in total. The first 70 pages nothing happens, in fact I think you could remove them from the book & lose nothing from the story. Then 300 odd pages with multiple chapters devoted to a single scene, but we seem to get a version of it from each characters viewpoint & then the last 20-30 pages / chapters seem a rush to conclude the story, again told from every characters viewpoint... This rush to conclude the story seems to make sense once you read the acknowledgements at the end of the book as he was waiting to go on holiday once he'd finished writing it."
400 odd pages in total. The first 70 pages nothing happens, in fact I think you could remove them from the book & lose nothing from the story. Then 300 odd pages with multiple chapters devoted to a single scene, but we seem to get a version of it from each characters viewpoint & then the last 20-30 pages / chapters seem a rush to conclude the story, again told from every characters viewpoint... This rush to conclude the story seems to make sense once you read the acknowledgements at the end of the book as he was waiting to go on holiday once he'd finished writing it."
redrabbit29 said:
Read this on holiday and really disappointed by it. For over a year I'd nearly bought it as I was sure I'd enjoy it based on blurb and reviews.
- loads of characters who didn't add much and got confusing
- plot was too slow. So many chapters of nothing
- round the whole "quirkyness" overplayed and repeatedly played out was tiring
Reading the reviews more deeply and others had similar feelings. In fact Amazon's latest reviews are mostly quite negative.
Same. Unresolved plot twists too- loads of characters who didn't add much and got confusing
- plot was too slow. So many chapters of nothing
- round the whole "quirkyness" overplayed and repeatedly played out was tiring
Reading the reviews more deeply and others had similar feelings. In fact Amazon's latest reviews are mostly quite negative.
I’ve read all four and whilst they aren’t Agatha Christie good, they (to me, at least) were balanced, easy reading books that weren’t too cerebral.
In his latest book, ‘The Last Devil to Die’, Osman captures some really poignant examples of love and loss. Perhaps he has lost someone close to him which he has utilised in the book.
Anyway, he now has a new book due out with a crime fighting father and daughter.
Overall opinion; better than just ‘chewing gum’ (ie mindless) for the eyes, probably best defined as quaint, easy and comfortable reading.
In his latest book, ‘The Last Devil to Die’, Osman captures some really poignant examples of love and loss. Perhaps he has lost someone close to him which he has utilised in the book.
Anyway, he now has a new book due out with a crime fighting father and daughter.
Overall opinion; better than just ‘chewing gum’ (ie mindless) for the eyes, probably best defined as quaint, easy and comfortable reading.
dukeboy749r said:
In his latest book, ‘The Last Devil to Die’, Osman captures some really poignant examples of love and loss. Perhaps he has lost someone close to him which he has utilised in the book.
.
I agree, although I didn't enjoy the 4th book as much, some of the writing about Stephen's dementia was very moving..
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